Mangled
by Ciaus Falkreath
Summary: Hurricane Tech hosts some of the brightest minds in the country. So, when a group of students decide to create a bipedal robot for their senior design project, they look to old animatronics as a cheap alternative for parts.


His heart was beating fast… so fast that he thought it was going to leap out of his chest. His surroundings were quiet, except for his heavy breathing. He ran into a little corner of the dark room and hid under a desk. His breathing slowed and his mind began to catch up with the rest of him. Tears flooded his eyes as memories of what just occurred whizzed around in his head. His breathing began to quicken again and as it did, another sound emerged from the darkness. It started quietly, but slowly rose in volume, as if whatever was making the noise, was getting closer. It was static. The same kind of static that appears when tuning into a radio station at the wrong frequency.

When it was loud enough, another noise could be heard. This one sounded like a rhythmic pattern of a large metal object hit the floor… like footsteps. It grew louder… and louder… and louder, until the static noise was almost unbearable. He clasped his hands around his ears just as two metal feet stood right in front of him. For several seconds, it just stood there, and he held his breath. Then, it turned around and began to walk in the other direction. When it was far enough, he released a sigh of relief and began moving from his hiding spot.

However, as he moved, a book that was resting underneath one of the legs slipped, causing several bolts and washers to fall off the table and crash to the floor. The room was once again quiet… quiet… the static had stopped. He looked at the monster as it turned around. Its two heads and two pairs of bright red eyes paralyzed him. It saw him… it saw him…

One Week Ago

His heart was beating fast… so fast that he thought it was going to leap out of his chest. He had been waiting the whole week for this. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a pickup truck. In the driver's seat, was his girlfriend Chelsea. Her long brown hair flew all over the place due to the open window. She saw him looking at her and smiled. He smiled back. He then turned around and looked at the three people sitting in the back.

John's short blonde hair was messy and his pale skin was riddled with acne. He sat quiet on his phone with headphones plugged in. Sitting next to him were Matt and Chris. Matt had his hair shaved down to a buzz cut, his perfectly tan skin and tone body was the envy of everybody he knew. Chris on the other hand had skin that was pale like John's and was slightly overweight. They laughed and talked with each other, as best friends do. He then turned around and faced the road.

"You alright Zander? Chelsea asked. Zander's short curly brown hair just barely swayed in the wind. His glasses were resting comfortably on his nose.

"Yeah, I'm just excited. I can't believe we actually found something," he answered.

"I'm still not too sure about this," John butted in, pulling the earbuds out of his ears.

"Oh come on, not this again," Zander pleaded, "You said it yourself, it was probably bad coding practice. Remember _when_ these were made."

"I know, it's just a lot is resting on this. We're not talking about a pet project here, this is our senior design project."

"Yeah, and it's gonna' be the best one this year," Chris chimed in.

"Good thing I came up with it," Matt added.

"Okay mister ROTC," Zander teased.

"If it makes you feel better John, I'm not exactly comfortable using scraps of a Fazbear animatronic either," Chelsea contributed, "But we're running low on money and this could be our big break."

"Imagine everyone who'll see this. We're talking computer companies, Army… what if Boston Dynamics came and saw our project?"

"Why do I even try?" John asked while smiling.

"You act like you have a choice," Zander joked. The remainder of the car ride was filled with small banter and mindless games like "I Spy". Soon enough however, they reached their destination. It was a small landfill in the middle of nowhere. The outer perimeter was protected with a tall chain-link fence and barbed wire at the top. The main entrance was a large fenced gate big enough for a car twice their size to fit in. As they pulled up, they saw a tall grizzly man inside a small portable wave at them just before pushing a button, causing the gate to slide open. They rolled inside and parked by the fence near the entrance. As they all stood up and stretched, the same man walked towards them.

"You the kids form Hurricane Tech?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Zander answered, "I'm Zander, this is my girlfriend Chelsea, and these three are John, Chris and Matt."

"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Hank," he greeted with his hand outstretched. Zander grabbed his hand and exchanged greetings.

"Nice to meet you too sir. Mind if we take a look at what you have?" Zander asked.

"Not at all, follow me." All five of them did what they were told and followed the man to the back of the dump to a large storage container. He pulled out a set of keys and removed the lock on the door. He then swung the door open for the group to see. Inside, four animatronics laid crumpled against the walls.

"From what I understand, these aren't the original ones. These were made to replace them because of malfunctions and whatnot," Hank explained.

"Yeah, you see that one in the corner?" John asked while pointing to a hodge-podge of parts with the remains of a pink plastic fox head, "That's The Mangle, a friend of mine was telling me about it. Apparently it was a take-apart-and-put-back-together attraction."

"They let _kids_ play with that?" Chelsea asked out of disbelief, "No wonder they gor closed down."

"Which one would be the cheapest?" Zander asked.

"Probably the Mangle. I don't see many other people being interested in these things, especially that one," Hank answered.

"How much?" Zander asked. Hank put his hand to his chin and took a second to think,

"I've been thinking… how does nine fifty sound?" Hank asked.

"I think we can do that, guys?"

"Sounds reasonable," Chelsea agreed.

"I can go for it," Chris agreed.

"Same here," Matt added.

"John?" Zander gestured, "Sound good to you?"

"It's definitely fair… but…"

"John, we're here. We're so close…" Zander pleaded.

"If it's any consolation, these animatronics haven't moved since they were put into this container six months ago," Hank added.

"I know how you feel John, but think about it this way. Buying this animatronic will leave us with more money to spend on additional electronics and sensors," Chelsea reasoned. John weighed the options in his head. It had to have been the way they were programmed yet… he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

"C'mon man," Zander pleaded. John sighed.

"Alright… let's buy it."


End file.
